Mischief Managed Afloat: Next Generation

 Remember the beginning of last week's post when I said there wasn't anything dramatic enough happening to build a climactic arc into the post? This week even less happened. That's not a bad thing though. I'd take boring and relaxing over chaotic and dangerous any day.  We originally set out on this trip with some lofty stretch goals (Alaska) and some slightly less lofty medium goals (Vancouver) but we realized the cliche is true. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Or, at least in our situation it is. (If you're headed to the bathroom however, it definitely is about the destination. Hurry! Go!)  We could still make it to these exotic places, but at this point, the scales have tipped and we have more reasons to go south and north. I'm sure there are incredible things up north, and I know there amazing sights that we would love to see, but when our kids are 3 and 4, the sights aren't that important. They don't care about majest...

 Writing these blogs is a great chance for me to record this journey for my sake.  Every time I had a kid they grabbed a big chunk of my brain on the way out and now I have no memory left. The only things I can dependably remember are the words to Maui's rap in Moana  and the names of about 37 dinosaurs.  Unfortunately, I do not have my life together enough to write these blogs as I go. Usually, I wake up on a weekend and go "crap! I should make a post!" And scramble through my phone's pictures trying to piece together what we did that week. I do try to cobble together some sort of story arc with each post, but this week was kind of anticlimactic. Instead of one big adventure, we had lots of little ones.  All of this is to say after we left San Juan Island, I have no idea where we went. It was a calm little anchorage off a calm little island. I took pictures of it. That's all I got.  I could ask Justin what island this is, but it's 7:00am on Sunday and he d...

Strap in, guys. This post is a long one.  If you haven't read the last post, shame on you. (Not really, I'm desperate for attention and I'm thrilled anyone is reading this at all.) We left off departing Port Townsend and heading north towards the San Juan Islands. But first, we had to go through the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  After that crossing though, I'm about ready to call it the "Strait of Juan de F*ck Ya." We left Port Townsend refreshed, excited, full of hope and delicious food. It was a clear day with a light wind. And for once, both of our weather apps agreed. "You'll be fine," the apps said. "This crossing will be a breeze. Ha, get it? Breeze?" Nobody was laughing. We were all busy trying to keep our lunches down.  The Strait of Juan de Fuca is a large body of water that connects Puget Sound to the Atlantic Ocean, so it has some very bizarre wind and current conditions that are difficult to predict.  I stole this map from the in...

 We made it to Port Townsend for our haul-out with a whopping 20 minutes to spare. For those of you who made good choices in your life and don't spend an inordinate amount of time in and around boats, a "haul-out" means your boat is lifted out of the water and placed precariously on land so that you or (if you're rich) someone else can do repairs on the boat that are impossible in the water. This isn't the first time we've hauled a boat out, and it probably won't be the last. Our previous two boats lived in freshwater, which freezes in the winter, so a seasonal haul-out was a requirement. Here in saltwater Puget Sound, however, you can go years without a haul-out.  But eventually, the travel lift comes for us all.  The travel lift is an enormous remote-controlled cube that lifts boats out of the water and drives them and deposits them on land. It's fascinating to watch, unless of course you're three or four years old. If you're three, it's ...